A place I keep the things I enjoy in.
When I began to write Aphelion I hadn’t honestly believed I’d get near its end. Or even around that hump in the middle. Which is why I’m so surprised that I finished drafting the entirety of episode 4 yesterday and how there are only three chapters after this until the book is entirely finished.
It’s a bit overwhelming, really.
I’ve put together a cheat sheet based on how I begin building my characters. There’s tons of those out there already of course and a lot that go into details 500+ questions deep. But we’re not looking for a laundry list of How many siblings do they have to How do they cross the street here. Rather, we’re trying to build a foundation from which the rest of the character can grow comfortably.
It covers things like their physical description, their voice, and (most importantly) their motivation. All things you need to get you started.
Begin by jotting down three words that represent them. Don’t overthink it. Boil them down to the essentials.
Description. Notable Features. How do others see them?
This may be a misleading section. While description and notable features are largely straight forward, How do others see them? is one of my favourite questions to ask. Do they easily intimidate others? Are they often underestimated? If so, why? What characterizes them to others and how does the world at large treat them?
Vocabulary. Speech Pattern. Thought Process. Ticks.
This is where the character’s voice comes from as you write them. Think about what words they use a lot. Or if they favour simple words or big words. Dig for ticks that may bleed into the narration. Do they think a lot? What do those thoughts look like? Do the ramble or keep things precise? Do they drive past a pasture and go Horse! no matter what? Those sorts of things.
Goals. Why? Overcome
What are their goals as the story begins and as it continues or concludes? Why are they doing what they are doing? And what do they need to overcome?
This, in particular, is the part that will change over time and show character development. Though, really, all of the above can (and might) change. Being consistent as you build them is important so that when the change happens it matters.
2016-04-14 – 3 years – 350000 words
“On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.” – George Orwell
The fall of Harran robbed man of its humanity, and Zofia Sirota of her innocence. Finding redemption, with the city rotting away around her, seems to be a pipe dream at best, until a man falls from the skies and turns futility to hope. Either that, or he’s about to make things a whole lot worse.
Season 1: Latchkey Hero
A man falls from the skies and makes things a whole lot worse.
The Gunsmith: A Lady’s Favour
There’s a little girl in dire need of modern-day magic, and still, Crane tells Zofia: “Stay here.”
At the Tower: Hide and Seek
In which Kyle Crane finds it horribly difficult to stay on target and regrets having put on jeans for the day.
Season 2: Volatile
Season 3: #SaveHarran
All the art you see has either been done by delborovic, saph-y, or nucleargers (nsfw).
I’ve done it. Finally. It took me three years, and a bunch of times of almost giving up, but here I am. The last chapter has been drafted, and all that’s left is a little more patience and a few more nights of editing what I got. Then Latchkey Hero is done.
Thank you, everyone, who has taken the time to read it.
It’s been… an experience. Thanks to you and with you, and like for any experience’s third birthday, I ought to at least make some noise. So here it is, that noise. A bunch of links on where to find the complete series, its sparkling new website, and some art that I’ve collected over… uh… the years. Literal years. Man, this feels weird.
Welcome to my amazing friend’s debut post on her writing blog. @owlishments will be sharing with us what she’s experienced, past and present, during her long and rewarding writing journey.
Go on, have a read. It’s well worth it.
Have faith, fellow writer.
Writing is magic. It’s true. Think about it: Using varying combinations of twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation marks, you can build an entire world. You can create brand new people for your readers to meet. You can make people feel love, hate, and everything between.
Pure magic.
But you don’t have to wait for your letter to Hogwarts to wield it. You don’t even need a wand—unless you want to pretend you pen is one, because it might as well be. The power to tell a story comes from inside you. It’s something we learn as small children playing games in the backyard, imagining that the trees are giants and the ants are our friends. With time, practice, and a drive to tell your story, you can learn to write.
It isn’t easy. Art never is. The words you write are an extension of yourself. A piece of…
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. . . is outlined. For the first time, I’m actually seeing the ending in front of me. Not just by thinking about it, but by flipping through the notepad that I’ve had with me from the start, where Latchkey Hero’s first few words were written, and where I’ve plotted and outlined almost all of season two and three.
It’s falling apart, I admit, but with all the abuse it’s been getting I am not surprised. And with abuse I mean waking up in the middle of the night, having an idea and figuring something out and dropping the thing three times before finding a pen.
But what delights me the most? How absolutely perfectly it fit.
No one can tell me that this isn’t a sign. That Kyle Crane’s and Zofia’s journey isn’t about to pause where it ought to, because they’ve done the unthinkable and been with me for two years of incredible joy and headache. Mostly joy though. And pride. I am so proud of them.
Yeah, it was Latchkey’s two year birthday on the 14th of April. 🎊
Neat. Right?
So. What now? Now I got to write everything that I’ve outlined, and get back to posting once I’ve caught up. Which, I’ll be honest, feels a bit like I’m staring at the Mount Everest right now. It’s all a little scary.
But we got this. 748 words and counting.
When I was twelve or so, I was neck deep in imagining a world that knew no boundaries, where one day little Taff would chop at the air with a lightsaber, and the other she’d battle fierce Xenomorphs. Or why not both at once? It was a world, where velociraptors were friendly, and horses had feathers, and dragons liked it when you rode the skies with them.
It was great.
But then life happened, innocence was lost, and while I grew up, so did the carefree and boundless world. It changed. Over. And. Over. Again. Until the only thing that I could still recognize, was a single name in it: Shielding.
And for so long- for more than a century -I’ve doubted that I would ever be able to pluck that world from my head at all. Because everyone says they’ll write a book one day, don’t they? Well. A lot of them, anyway, except then they never actually do.
Just look at Google’s opinion on the matter of:
Out of every 1,000 people that set out to write a book, only 30 actually finish. And if you then add on top of that the fact that only 20% of people who write a book actually publish it, this means only 6 people get published. [source]
Don’t quote me on that tho’ – it’s from 2012, and we’ve got self publishing really taking off now, which, hey- was mostly why I’ve finally decided that I’ve run out of excuses. Because once you’ve put almost four novels worth of content out there, have finished three books, there’s really no more room to argue “But, I can’t.”
Latchkey Hero, my Dying Light fan fiction, has made it into a solid third season, with two whole books finished. Season two and three are good as original already, giving me an opportunity to practice building a plot from the bottom up.
A Valiant Remedy ended at 200k words, and… doesn’t suck. Who’d have thought bringing A Shielding Thing together with Chris Redfield Resident Evil, would actually work?
So.
Buckle up.
We are getting started. And since I’m posting this there, I suppose I got to take responsibility for actually following through.
Part 1 of the first book has been outlined. Sort of.
Writing. Reading. Dreaming. 